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British Journal of Developmental Psychology (2011), 29, 524–551C© 2010 The British Psychological Society

TheBritishPsychologicalSociety

www.wileyonlinelibrary.com

Children’s perceptions and comforting strategiesto infant crying: Relations to age, sex, andempathy-related responding

Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl1∗University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

This study aimed to examine child characteristics associated with the understandingof and responses to infant crying. Seven hundred and twenty-four 1st to 7th gradechildren (383 boys, 341 girls) were shown a picture depicting a crying infant, whereuponthey were asked to generate the potential causes for infant crying along with theaction responses that they might utilize to assist a crying baby. Self-reports ofchildren’s empathy-related responding were also obtained. As hypothesized, an age-related increase in the number, variety, and quality for causes for infant crying andstrategies to help a crying infant were observed. Girls generated a higher mean numberand variety of causes compared to boys. For older children (grades 4–7), dimensions ofempathy-related responding, namely sympathy and perspective taking, were significantlyassociated with the number and variety of causes for infant crying and caregivingstrategies. The findings support the conclusion for a developmental progression ofunderstanding of facial expressions of infant crying across middle childhood.

Emerging research on the development of prosocial (sharing, helping) behaviour hasidentified several factors likely to motivate displays of prosocial actions in responseto infant crying. These include a range of social cognitive and emotional dimensionssuch as perspective taking, empathy, and emotional understanding (Eisenberg & Fabes,1998; Fabes, Carlo, Kupanoff, & Laible, 1999). Despite this growing body of work,understanding the psychological, social, and developmental underpinnings of prosocialbehaviour in response to infant crying is limited. Moreover, studies of specific typesof prosocial behaviours and their correlates such as children’s comforting behavioursare rare (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998), and relatively little is known about the correlatesand antecedents of prosocial behaviour during the middle childhood years – theages between 6 and 12 years (Fabes et al., 1999). In addition, in most studies ofcomforting behaviours, few researchers have examined multiple predictors in a largesample of children across a wide age span in a single study. Accordingly, the present studywas designed to examine the relation of quantity and quality of children’s perceptions

∗Correspondence should be addressed to Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology,and Special Education, University of British Columbia, Room 2503, Neville Scarfe Building, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada (e-mail: kimberly.schonert-reichl@ubc.ca).

DOI:10.1348/026151010X521475

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of the causes of infant crying and their comforting strategies for infant crying to sex,age, and dimensions of empathy-related responding in a large community sample ofelementary school-aged children. The children in this study, who were in grades 1–7,represented an older age group and wider span of age than children in previous studieson children’s understanding of infant crying and of the relation of empathy-relatedresponding to children’s comforting strategies. Given the findings of previous researchdemonstrating that girls, in contrast to boys, are higher in empathy (e.g., Eisenberg,Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006) and have qualitatively different responses to infant crying(Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983; Eisenberg, Fabes, Karbon, Murphy, Carlo, et al., 1996),we expected differences between boys and girls. In addition, we expected that olderchildren’s empathic responding, (namely sympathy and perspective-taking) would alsobe associated with their comforting strategies.

Understanding the development of children’s perceptions and comforting strategiesto infant crying in relation to empathy is important in both replicating and extendingprevious work on the antecedents and correlates of prosocial, altruistic behavioursin middle childhood. Prosocial behaviour, defined as voluntary behaviour intended tobenefit another (Eisenberg, Fabes, et al., 2006; Staub, 1996), is a hallmark of socialand emotional competence across childhood and adolescence. Indeed, because ofthe crucial role that behaviours such as cooperativeness, helpfulness, and comfortingplay in forecasting children’s positive developmental outcomes including academicperformance (Caprara, Barbanelli, Pastorelli, Bandura, & Zimbardo, 2000; Wentzel, 1993)and social acceptance and approval (e.g., Bukowski & Sippola, 1996), understanding theunderlying mechanisms in the development of children’s prosocial behaviour has beenan important goal for researchers interested in the promotion of competence and theprevention of maladjustment.

During the past few decades, researchers have devised a variety of strategies to guidetheir investigations aimed at uncovering the factors that predict children’s prosocialbehaviours. This research has included a diverse range of methodological approaches,including self- and peer-reports (e.g., Wentzel & McNamara, 1999), laboratory ex-periments (e.g., Warneken & Tomasello, 2006, 2007), and naturalistic observations(Ladd, Birch, & Buhs, 1999). One methodological approach used by researchers toobtain specific data on developmental changes in children’s comforting behaviours tothe psychological distress of another has included presenting children with a cryinginfant (e.g., a picture, a tape-recording) and then obtaining children’s reactions to orstrategies for helping the infant (see Eisenberg, Fabes, Karbon, Murphy, Carlo, et al.,1996; Fabes, Eisenberg, Karbon, Troyer, & Switzer, 1994; Zahn-Waxler, Friedman, &Cummings, 1983). Although these studies have furthered our understanding of the waysin which children’s comforting behaviours develop, this knowledge is limited in threekey areas. First, in addition to obtaining information on children’s comforting strategies

to infant crying (e.g., Burleson, 1982; McCoy & Masters, 1985), there is a need to jointlyconsider children’s perceptions of why the infant is crying in a single study (e.g., Fabes,Eisenberg, Nyman, & Michealieu, 1991; Harris, Olthof, & Terwogt, 1981). Given theimportance of children’s emotion knowledge to prosocial behaviours and future socialand academic outcomes (Izard et al., 2001), examining the developmental componentsof children’s perceptions of emotion is critical for understanding the emergence ofempathy-related responding and prosocial behaviours. Second, in most of the extantresearch of empathy and comforting behaviours, the samples have either includedchildren who were relatively young (e.g., kindergarten and second graders; Fabes et al.,1994) or focused on a restricted range of age (e.g., third to sixth grade; Eisenberg,

526 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

Fabes, Karbon, Murphy, Wosinski, et al., 1996; see, however, Zahn-Waxler et al., 1983).Thus, at the present time it is difficult to determine how findings from studies withyounger children generalize to populations of older children, specifically those childrenacross the elementary school years. Collins (1984) posits that it is during the middlechildhood years in which children’s personalities, behaviours, and competencies mayconsolidate into forms that persist into adolescence and on into adulthood. Similarly,research indicates that although there is variation among children in terms of rate ofgrowth and development during this period, development during middle childhood isa powerful predictor of adolescent adjustment (Huston & Ripke, 2006). The absenceof data for older children regarding their understanding of infant crying is unfortunategiven that important developmental changes occur in cognition, moral reasoning, andempathy-related responding during middle childhood (e.g., Eccles, 1999; Sameroff &Haith, 1996). Hence, the correlates of younger and older children’s understanding ofinfant crying and strategies for helping a crying infant may be qualitatively different. Toour knowledge, no studies have examined the development of children’s understandingof infant crying in children spanning a wide developmental age range. Indeed, verylittle is known about the continued development of children’s understanding of facialexpressions of infant distress across the full childhood range into early adolescence(see Herba & Phillips, 2004). Finally, a paucity of research exists that has examined theassociation of dimensions of empathy-related responding, namely empathic concernor sympathy and perspective taking, in relation to children’s understanding of andresponsiveness to infant crying. Given the salient nature of infant crying as a trigger forcaregiving as well as abusive behaviour (see Murray, 1979), research exploring empathicresponding in typically developing children will help serve as a first step to inform andrefine theory examining the development of prosocial responding to infant crying.

Development of children’s emotion expression understandingResults of a number of studies, mostly in preschool children, support an observed age-related improvement of the development of emotion expression understanding (seeBoyatzis, Chazan, & Ting, 1993; Fabes et al., 1991; Fine, Izard, & Trentacosta, 2006;Herba, Landau, Russell, Ecker, & Phillips, 2006; Nelson, 1987; Odom & Lemond, 1972;Philippot & Feldman, 1990; Pons & Harris, 2005; see McClure, 2000, for a list of studies).Notwithstanding, only a small number of studies published over one to two decadesago – have examined the continued development of emotion expression understandingover the full childhood range. Harris et al. (1981) examined Dutch children’s verbalknowledge of positive and negative emotions such as happy and anger or fear in 6-, 11-,and 15-year olds (e.g., how do you know you are happy /angry/afraid?). Consistent withthe hypothesis that the attribution of emotion would shift from an external (situational)to an internal (mental) focus over the course of development, the authors found anage-related difference in the extent to which children cited situational (e.g., birthday),or mental cues (e.g., think everything is fine) as the basis for understanding the causesof emotion. The youngest children focused on external, observable components ofemotion, whereas the older children, at both 11 and 15 years of age, considered themore internal, mental aspects of emotion. Burleson (1982) examined verbal comfortingskills in a small number of children in grades 1–12 in response to a hypothetical peer indistress. The results demonstrated that the number, variety, and sensitivity of comfort-intended messages significantly increased with age. Similarly, McCoy and Masters (1985)examined the strategies nominated by children aged 5, 8, and 12 years intended to

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change the positive or negative state in their peers. It was found that with increasingage, children nominated less material interventions and more verbal or social strategiesthat directly addressed the cause of another’s emotional state. The observation thatchildren’s understanding of emotion moves from an external focus to an internal focusas they mature and develop is in concert with the hierarchical developmental modelof emotion understanding proposed by Pons, Harris, and de Rosnay (2004). Pons et al.

(2004) describe nine components of emotion understanding that range from simplerecognition of emotion by young children around 3 years old, to regulation strategies ofemotion by 6–8 years of age. Pons et al. (2004) demonstrate that children as young as3–4 years old show a basic understanding of how ‘external causes’ may affect emotionsof others. Whereas older children bring into play more advanced, complex componentsof emotion understanding that encompass regulation strategies. For example, Pons et al.

(2004) found that children at age 6–7 years tend to use behavioural strategies foremotional control whereas older children aged 8 years begin to acknowledge internalpsychological states. Harris et al. (1981) posit that this conceptualization of emotion inyounger children is a standard behaviouristic response in which psychological states arepredictable reactions to an environmental stimulus. Older children in contrast are able toidentify emotions based on more complicated subjective responses that involve maskingor re-direction of mental states and bodily or behavioural reactions to a situation. Thus,younger children may use external cues to understand or respond to an emotion butare less aware of the sequence of components or inner mental aspects that constituteemotion understanding or responding. Similar to theories of emotion development,theories of the development of prosocial moral reasoning, emphasize the increasedcapacity for empathy and for internalization of values and norms as children mature(Eisenberg et al., 1987; Eisenberg, Fabes, et al., 2006; Zahn-Waxler & Smith, 1992;Zahn-Waxler et al., 1983) suggesting that with increasing age, children will demonstratemore empathic and caregiving behaviours towards infants in distress. However researchexamining the relation between children’s perceptions of, and comforting strategies toinfant crying and measurements of trait empathy across middle childhood are rare.

Development of children’s comforting strategies to infant cryingOf the limited studies examining development of children’s comforting strategies toinfant crying, preliminary evidence supports a link between age and young children’scaregiving behaviours in response to infant crying. Zahn-Waxler et al. (1983) presentedchildren ranging in age from late preschool to preadolescence with a tape-recording ofeither a pre-term or a full-term infant from an adjacent room. Then a mother carryingan infant came looking for the bottle of her (previously) ‘crying’ infant. The researchersfound that verbal help or sympathy was more likely from the older children (10- and 11-year olds) and the middle age group (6- and 7-year olds) than the younger children (4- and5-year olds). Overall, older children more frequently provided caregiving responses thandid the younger age group. A methodological approach similar to Zahn-Waxler et al.’shas been used by Eisenberg, Fabes, Karbon, Murphy, Carlo et al. (1996) and Fabeset al. (1994) in their research on children’s comforting behaviour and empathy-relatedreactions. The observation that caregiving responses in children increase with age iscompatible with social cognitive developmental theories that document that the child’sability to take the role or perspective of the other becomes more sophisticated withage and is seen as a major determinant of actions on behalf of another (e.g., Eisenberg,Fabes, et al., 2006). Thus, with more advanced social-cognitive abilities, older children

528 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

may be better equipped to employ sophisticated and sensitive caregiving responses toinfant crying than younger children.

Empathic responding to infant cryingTwo of the earliest models of infant crying as elicitors of caregiving and comfortingbehaviours were posited by Murray (1979) who proposed an ethological frameworkwhere cries are viewed as a distress signal that released adaptive, parental caregivingbehaviours to promote proximity to the infant and ensure survival of the species (e.g.,Bowlby, 1969). Specifically, the cry act is conceptualized as a releaser of a fixed orinnate motor response from the parent (i.e., caregiving behaviour). In the other modelput forward by Murray, cries are viewed as elicitors of emotions specifically egotisticalor altruistic motivations. The altruistic response to reduce the infant’s distress is basedon the capacity for shared affect and concern for others. The ‘egotistical’ response toinfant cries, which is based on the need to reduce the parent’s distress, may accountfor attempts to flee or avoid infant crying. Exposure to excessive crying may transformparent’s altruistic motivations to egotistical. Indeed, there is literature suggesting that thecries can elicit negative emotions such as anger, fear, or frustration which in turn leadsto avoidant or abusive behaviours (Sheridan & Wolfe, 2004; Reijneveld, van der Wal,Brugman, Sing, & Verloove-Vanhorick, 2004). Evidence for this model of behaviour findssupport in the literature on the link between infant crying and physical abuse (Frodi &Lamb, 1980; Levitzky & Cooper, 2000; Reijneveld et al., 2004). For example, caregiverfrustration in response to infant crying is shown to be a significant trigger for physicalabuse such as Shaken Baby Syndrome (Barr, Trent, & Cross, 2006; Lee, Barr, Catherine,& Wicks, 2007).

According to the social information model of child physical abuse, parents at highrisk of child physical abuse (rated with the Child Abuse Potential Inventory; Milner,1994) as well as adolescent mothers (Osofsky & Culp, 1993) differ in their ability toaccurately encode the meaning of their child’s emotion expressions (Balge & Milner,2000; Milner, 1993, 2003). Parents at risk for abuse display greater feelings of hostilityand stress reactivity in response to stimuli depicting infant distress, and are more likelyto attribute negativity to an infant (Crouch, Skowronski, Milner, & Harris, 2008). Studiesutilizing the Infant Facial Expressions of Emotion (IFEEL) pictures, a series of photosof infant emotions (Emde, Osofsky, & Butterfield, 1993), demonstrate that pregnantadolescents attribute different emotions to the same pictures of infant facial expressionscompared to older parents. Furthermore, non-pregnant high school students responddifferently compared to both pregnant adolescents and older parents (Osofsky & Culp,1993, p. 158) suggesting that developmental level may play an important role in howinfants’ facial expressions of emotion are viewed. In addition to differences in emotionexpression processing, several authors have suggested that physically abusive parentsmay lack empathy for their children (e.g., Letourneau, 1981; Miller & Eisenberg, 1988;Milner, Halsey, & Fultz, 1995; Perez-Albeniz & de Paul, 2004). Indeed, theorists acrossa variety of disciplines are in accord with identifying empathy as the top candidatemechanism underlying caring behaviours in response to another’s pain or distress (seeBatson, 2009; de Waal, 2008; Eisenberg & Miller, 1987).

Empathy typically consists of both a cognitive and an affective component (Davis,1994). The cognitive component of empathy is the ability to understand another’scognitive state or perspective (Eisenberg & Miller, 1987). Empathy is considered affectivewhen it refers to the tendency to feel concern towards others (sympathy) or to feel

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anxiety or discomfort (personal distress) in response to observing another’s negativeexperience. Research aimed at elucidating the antecedents of adults’ responses to infantdistress suggests that empathy may play a role in facilitating emotional responsiveness toinfant crying and the initiation of caring and comforting strategies and actions reflectingconcern for the well-being of the infant (Hendriks & Vingerhoets, 2006; Wiesenfeld,Whitman, & Malatesta, 1984). Despite this growing body of research delineating themechanisms and processes associated with responsiveness to infant crying, almost allprevious research has been conducted with adult samples and hence little is knownabout the correlates of responses to infant crying during middle childhood. There is goodreason to assume that empathy-related emotions are an important source of motivationin regard to prosocial responding to infant crying in both children and adults (Eisenberg& Eggum, 2008). Evidence suggests that the dimension of sympathy (i.e. ‘feelings ofsorrow or concern for another based on the perception of another’s emotional state’,Eisenberg, Fabes, Karbon, Murphy, Carlo et al., 1996, p. 331) is associated with children’scomforting strategies. As argued by Eisenberg and Fabes (1998), sympathy is associatedwith other-oriented, altruistic motivation and behaviour in which helping is likely toreduce the aversive stimuli emitted by a distressed or needy individual. Perspectivetaking, which involves cognitively taking the perspective of another or accessinginformation from memory to assist in understanding another’s perspective, is associatedwith the promotion of sympathy and is linked to prosocial behaviour in older childrenand adolescents (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 1987; Eisenberg, Zhou, & Koller, 2001). Therefore,understanding how children’s perceptions and verbal strategies to help a crying infant arerelated to self-reports of empathy may help inform and expand current theories of howchildren’s empathic, prosocial responding to infants develops across middle childhood.

Overview of the current study and hypothesesThe current study was designed to extend understanding of children’s responses to infantcrying in several ways. First, we set out to demarcate not only children’s perceptionsof why an infant is crying; we also examined verbal strategies for assisting a cryinginfant in children across a wide developmental age-period in middle childhood. Second,we examined the manner in which empathy-related responding was associated withchildren’s perceptions and comforting strategies to infant crying. Third, given previousresearch indicating sex differences in both empathy and responses to infant crying (e.g.,Eisenberg, Fabes, Karbon, Murphy, Carlo et al., 1996), we also examined differencesbetween boys and girls in our sample in relation to their perceptions of and responsesto infant crying.

Based on developmental theory and results of previous studies, we expected to findthat children’s perceptions of why an infant is crying changes with increasing age, and isreflected in a gradual transition in the attribution of the emotion from external to internalcauses (Harris et al., 1981; McCoy & Masters, 1985). Furthermore, we predicted thatchildren’s perceptions and strategies of how they might help a crying infant would reflecttheir developmental level, with older children demonstrating increased frequency andvariety of written responses compared to younger children’s verbal responses (Burleson,1982). Finally, it was expected that the quality of causes and strategies children offeredin response to a crying infant would be positively associated with age and self-reportedempathy (Eisenberg et al., 1987; Underwood & Moore, 1982), with girls demonstratinghigher levels of empathic responding compared to boys (e.g., Eisenberg, Spinrad, &Sadovsky, 2006; Zahn-Waxler, Robinson, & Emde, 1992).

530 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

MethodParticipantsChildren were drawn from 38 regular educational classrooms across 16 public ele-mentary schools located in a large Western Canadian city. All students in participatingclassrooms were invited to participate during the fall of their school year. Participantsincluded 724 children (383 boys, 341 girls) from the 1st to 7th grades (Mean age = 9.3years, SD = 2.0, Range = 5.55–13.13 years). The distribution of sex and grade for thissample was as follows; 137 first graders (78 boys, 59 girls), 68 second graders (31 boys, 37girls), 67 third graders (33 boys, 34 girls), 112 fourth graders (61 boys, 51 girls), 153 fifthgraders (79 boys, 74 girls), 102 sixth graders (53 boys, 49 girls), and 85 seventh graders(48 boys, 37 girls). After university and school board permission had been provided toconduct the research, parental permission forms, along with a letter from the schoolprincipal describing the research were translated into four languages representative ofthe student population (i.e., Chinese, Vietnamese, Punjabi, Spanish) and then given tostudents. Prior to providing the children with the parental permission slips, either atrained research assistant or the Principal Investigator of the research project provideda 15-min presentation to each participating class describing the study in age-appropriatelanguage and answering children’s questions. Of the total children invited to participate,87% received parental/guardian consent and gave assent themselves. Children who wereunable to complete the battery of measures due to special needs (2.1%; N = 18), or whowere identified by teachers as not competent in written and spoken English (2.1%; N =18) were excluded from participation.

Schools in which children were recruited were representative of a diverse range ofsocio-economic status and were considered to be a microcosm of the larger community,containing families with service worker, skilled labourers, and professionals. As toparticipating children’s family composition, 77% of children reported living in two parenthomes (including both biological and step-parent families), 15% reported living with amother only, and the remainder reported living in dual custody arrangements (i.e., 1

2time mother, 1

2 father). With regard to language, 50% of the children reported thatEnglish was their native language. For the other children, the majority reported thattheir language native was either Chinese (27%) or Vietnamese (5%), while the remaining18% indicated a range of other languages (e.g., Spanish, Korean, Filipino). This range oflanguage backgrounds in the sample is reflective of the cultural and ethnic diversity ofthe Canadian city in which this research took place. Eighty-three per cent of the childrenhad one or more siblings and 67.5% had 1 or more young siblings (aged 1–14 years).

MeasuresUnderstanding of and responses to infant crying were obtained via an open-endedresponse format, and empathy and perspective taking were obtained via children’sself-reports.

Understanding of facial expression of emotionChildren’s understanding and responses to infants’ facial expression of distress (crying)was assessed via a task adapted from the IFEEL pictures (Emde, Osofsky, & Butterfield,1993). The task was specifically designed to assess children’s understanding of the causesof infant crying and knowledge of comforting strategies for helping a crying infant. Thedata collected for this study were obtained via a booklet of self-report questionnaires

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that were administered as part of a larger study on school-aged children’s social andemotional development. On one page of the booklet, children were shown a printedpicture. The stimulus was comprised of a black and white photograph of an infantcrying. The picture was cropped so that only the face of the infant was shown. Thepicture was also sex neutral with no apparent clothing or identifiers depicting either amale or female infant. On a separate page, children were presented with two questionsdesigned to address two conceptual categories, tapping their thoughts about (a) causesof infant crying (i.e., ‘Why does this baby cry?’) and (b) comforting strategies or actionresponses to the display of emotions (i.e., ‘What are some ways to help a crying baby?’).Children were not limited with regard to the number of causes and strategies that theycould offer.

Coding of responsesA coding system was developed such that categories met the criteria of being (a) reliablyidentifiable and (b) valid in terms of previous research concerning the developmentof children’s understanding of emotion shifting from an external to a more internalfocus as they mature (Burleson, 1982; Fabes et al., 1991; McCoy & Masters, 1985;Pons et al., 2004). Trained research assistants, blind to other data, coded children’sresponses separately for each question posed: causes for infant crying, and strategies forassisting a crying infant. The procedure for coding the data took place in the followingmanner. First, separate lists of all answers for each question produced by all participantswere compiled. One of the research assistants, who was unaware of the children’sidentifying information, read through all of the answers and systematically sortedthem until relatively discrete and meaningful categories were assembled. Categorieswere identified using an iterative process, where codebook modification, coding andassessment of reliability was conducted several times until categories were condensedinto larger conceptual categories. Using a categorical method, each subjects’ responsewas categorized as ‘1’ if it belonged to a specific category and assigned a code of ‘0’ if itdid not. Sum scores for each category were then calculated.

Coding of causes for infant cryingThe causes to which the children attributed infant crying were coded primarily in termsof the two following mutually exclusive superordinate categories: ‘Internal Causes’ and‘External Causes’ that were comprised of a number of subordinate categories. Thesuperordinate category of Internal Causes included any answer that made referenceto one of four subordinate categories: internal physical state (e.g., ‘hungry’, ‘tired’),emotional state (e.g., ‘upset’, ‘scared’, ‘lonely’), desired goal (e.g., ‘wants to play’, ‘wantsa toy’), or relational goal (e.g., ‘wants parents to hold him’, ‘wants brother or sister’).The superordinate category of External Causes included any answer that attributed thecause of infant crying to one of two subordinate categories: external physical eventsor actions (e.g., ‘there was a loud noise’, ‘baby fell down and is hurt’), or externalrelational actions directed towards baby (e.g., ‘got yelled at’, ‘no-one loves him’; seeTable 1, for a list of categories and corresponding examples). The majority of childrennominated the subordinate category of internal physical causes (71.5%), followed byexternal physical causes (61.9%), emotional causes (35.5%), external relational causes(27.2%), goals (26.7%), and goal relational (23.4%) causes. Children’s responses that wereuncodable, inaccurate, or where the child provided a ‘don’t know’ response occurred

532 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

Table 1. Categories of children’s attributions of causes and strategies to infant crying

less than 6.1%. Categories that were generated infrequently (i.e., in less than 10% ofthe sample of overall causes) were dropped from further analyses (disposition, e.g.,personality traits; cognition, e.g., ‘baby doesn’t understand’; and communication, e.g.,‘baby is communicating’). In addition to sum scores for each subordinate category, eachchild received two scores: the total sum of Internal Causes generated and a total sum ofExternal Causes generated. The total number of responses and variety of categories ofresponses given by each child was also calculated. Variety was defined as the numberof qualitatively different categories of strategies offered, where a higher numberrepresents more variety.

Coding of strategies for responding to infant cryingResponses to the questions assessing children’s knowledge of strategies for helping acrying baby were scored in a manner similar to that of the causes of infant crying. Themajority of children nominated caregiving (81.5%) and entertainment (55.8%) strategiesto help a crying infant. Due to the limited number of categories offered by children, nosuperordinate categories were identified for strategies to help a crying infant. Children’sresponses for strategies to help a crying infant were coded in terms of the following twocategories: caregiving behaviours that focused on helping the baby (e.g., ‘feed baby’,‘change diaper’, ‘comfort baby’) and entertainment strategies (e.g., ‘play with him’,‘make funny faces at him’; see Table 1). As with coding of causes for infant crying,the total number and variety of strategies given by each child was calculated. Notably,within the category of caregiving, the primary strategy generated by children was tofeed baby (e.g., ‘feed baby/give bottle/give milk’; 27.6%). Answers that were uncodable,inaccurate, or where the child stated ‘don’t know’ occurred less than 6% of the time.Categories that were generated infrequently (i.e. in less than 10% of the sample of overallstrategies) were dropped from further analyses (emotional object, e.g., ‘give pacifier’;negative intervention, e.g., ‘spank baby’; comforting environment, e.g., ‘turn up heat’).

Coding reliability was assessed by having two judges independently score approxi-mately 25% of the causes’ and strategies’ codes. Reliability (Cohen’s kappa) was .82 for

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the categories for ‘causes of crying’ and .92 for the categories for ‘strategies for crying’.All scores in data analyses were based on adjudications of two coder’s decisions whenthere had been disagreements.

Measurement of empathyBecause of the wide age-range of participating children and the absence of just onemeasure of empathy that could be utilized across such a broad age span, two differentmeasures for assessing empathy were employed for the younger and older children.Note that these measures were considered to be theoretically equivalent and thatthis approach to assessing empathy across this age span is one that has been usedby other researchers examining empathy in younger and older children and adolescents(Eisenberg et al., 1999). The 1st through 3rd grade children were administered a six-itemempathy measure assessing one dimension of empathy, namely sympathy (see Zhou,Valiente, & Eisenberg, 2003). This measure was developed to be a modified version ofthe Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) developed by Davis (1983). Children were askedto indicate ‘how well each sentence describes you’ by answering with either a ‘yes’ or‘no’. Each statement was administered in first person (e.g., ‘I feel sorry for other kidswho don’t have toys or clothes’; see Appendix A). A mean score was calculated withhigher scores indicating higher empathy. The six-item questionnaire had a Cronbach’salpha of .67. According to George and Mallery (2003), an alpha level of this magnitudeis considered to be in the ‘acceptable’ range for research purposes.

To assess empathy in the older children (grades 4–7) we used two subscales fromthe IRI (Davis, 1983), namely empathic concern (sympathy) and perspective taking. Theseven-item empathic concern subscale assesses affective responses such as the tendencyto experience feelings or warmth and concern for others (e.g., ‘I often feel sorry forkids who don’t have the things I have’; � = .87; see Appendix B). The seven-itemperspective-taking subscale assesses the tendency to take another’s point of view (e.g.,‘I try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before I make a decision’; � = .81).Items were rated from 1 = not at all like me to 5 = always like me. The mean scorefor items on each scale was calculated, with higher scores on each subscale reflectinghigher empathic concern and perspective-taking, respectively.

Background informationStudents completed a general information sheet that asked them their sex, grade level,family composition, date and year of birth, number and age of siblings, and nativelanguage.

ProcedureFor the children in 4th to 7th grades, surveys were group administered in regularclassrooms to students who assented and had provided active parental consent. Thestudents were informed that the project was both about children’s understanding ofinfants and their understanding of themselves. To facilitate group administration of thesurvey, and to aid with differences in reading ability, each item was read out loudto students by a trained research assistant. Participants were offered the opportunityto ask questions at any time during the session. Students responded to a series ofquestions, only a portion of which is reported here. For the younger children in

534 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

the 1st to 3rd grades, surveys were administered to smaller groups consisting ofapproximately two to three children. When assistance was needed, children’s responseswere recorded verbatim on their response sheet by a research assistant to accountfor differences in reading and writing abilities of these younger children. Rather thanrelying on these young children to write down their own responses, we believed thatthis approach would garner data that were both more reliable and valid. All interviewswere conducted by a trained researcher in a quiet room in the school during schoolhours.

ResultsPreliminary analysesAll variables were examined for outliers and missing data. Those children who scored>3SD above the mean on two or more variables were excluded from further analyses(N = 10; 1%); all remaining cases were included in subsequent analyses. The resultingsample size was 724 (383 boys, 341 girls). Preliminary analyses indicated that children’slanguage status, English as a second language (ESL; 0 = English as a first language, 1 =non-English as a first language) was not significantly related to any of the independent anddependent variables under consideration, F’s(1,706) < 1.0, p’s > .9. Because children’sunderstanding of causes and strategies to help a crying infant might be related toexperience with infants (Eisenberg, Fabes, Karbon, Murphy, Carlo et al., 1996), thenumber of siblings was examined and found not to be significantly related to any of theindependent and dependent variables, F’s(1, 709) < .98, p’s > .88. Furthermore, therewere no instances in which it was necessary to qualify any of the findings on the basis ofESL status or number of young siblings. The variables number of siblings and languagestatus were therefore dropped from further analyses.

Overview of resultsResults are presented in three sections. First, findings that characterize children’sunderstanding of number and variety of causes for infant crying and strategies forresponding to a crying infant across grade and sex are presented. For these analyses, weemployed a series of 2 (sex) × 7 (grade level) univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs)to examine the grade and sex differences with regard to the overall number and varietyof spontaneously generated responses. Second, we present findings examining sexand grade differences on the superordinate categories, internal and external causesof infant crying, and strategies for remediating infant crying, via a series of 2 (sex) × 7(grade level) ANOVAs. To assess sex and grade differences on the conceptually relatedsubordinate categories, we conducted a series of 2 (sex) × 7 (grade level) MANOVAsfor the subordinate categories of internal and, separately external causes for infantcrying. In order to provide information about the magnitude of effects beyond statisticalsignificance, we calculated partial eta-squared (�2

p) effect sizes. According to the criteriaproposed by Cohen (1988), .0099 is considered to be a ‘small effect’, .0588 is consideredto be a ‘medium effect’, and .1379 is considered to be a ‘large effect’. In our third section,we present findings from correlational analyses that examine relations of children’sperspective taking and empathic concern to both number and variety of causes andstrategies for infant crying. To control for familywise error, we set the alpha level at .01for all tests of significance.

Children’s understanding of infant crying 535

Grade and sex level differences in causes and strategies for infant crying: Numberand variety

Number of causes for infant cryingOur first objective was to determine the manner in which the number of children’sspontaneously generated causes for infant crying varied by grade and sex. We expectedthat the number of causes children offered for why an infant cries would increase withage. A significant main effect both for sex, F(1,710) = 9.0, p < .001, �2

p = .01, and forgrade F(6, 710) = 11.39, p < .001, �2

p = .09 was observed on the total number of causes.No significant interaction was observed between grade and sex, F(6,710) = 2.28, p =.04, �2

p = .02. Girls generated a higher mean number of causes for infant crying (M =4.02, SD = 2.00), compared to boys (M = 3.61, SD = 1.90). Follow-up Tukey’s post-hoc

analyses for grade revealed that children in 5th grade (M = 4.13, SD = 2.00), 6th grade(M = 4.36, SD = 2.10), and 7th grade (M = 4.56, SD = 2.00), generated a significantlygreater mean number of causes compared to children in 1st grade (M = 3.42, SD =2.10), 2nd grade (M = 2.90, SD = 1.50), and 4th grade (M = 3.15, SD = 1.50).

Number of strategies for responding to infant cryingOur next set of analyses explored grade and sex differences with regard to the numberof strategies that children spontaneously generate for helping a crying infant. As with ourprevious hypothesis regarding causes, we expected that older children would generatea greater number of strategies to help a crying infant than would younger children.The results demonstrated a significant main effect for sex, F(1,710) = 28.34, p < .001,�2

p = .04; a significant main effect for grade level, F(6,710) = 11.92, p < .001, �2p =

.09; and a significant grade level by sex interaction, F(6,710) = 3.04, p < .01, MSe =2.79, �2

p = .03 on the total number of strategies generated by children. Follow-up simpleeffects analyses revealed a significant effect of grade level on the number of strategiesoffered both for boys, F(6, 710) = 3.48, p < .01, �2

p = .03, and for girls F(6, 710) =11.12, p < .001, �2

p = .09. Pairwise comparisons using the Sidak adjustment for multiplecomparisons, demonstrated that older 7th grade boys (M = 3.44, SD = 1.8) generateda significantly greater number of strategies compared to younger 4th grade boys (M =2.36, SD = 1.2). Similarly, older girls in 5th grade (M = 3.96, SD = 1.9), 6th grade (M =4.76, SD = 2.3), and 7th grade (M = 4.41, SD = 1.6), generated a significantly greatermean number of strategies compared to younger girls in 1st grade (M = 2.66, SD = 1.6),and 2nd grade (M = 2.62, SD = 1.5).

Variety of causes for infant cryingOur next objective was to determine the manner in which the variety of categorieschildren generated varied by grade and sex. We expected that the variety of differentcauses children offered for why an infant cries would increase with age. The resultsdemonstrated a significant main effect for sex, F(1, 710) = 8.22, p < .01, �2

p = .01, andgrade level, F(6, 710) = 7.18, p < .001, �2

p = .06 on the variety of causes children gavefor infant crying. No significant interaction was observed between grade and sex, F(6,710) = 1.2, p = .3, �2

p = .01. With regard to the significant main effect for sex, girlsgenerated a greater variety of causes (M = 5.37, SD = 2.3) compared to boys (M = 4.9,SD = 2.0). Follow-up Tukey’s post-hoc analyses for grade level revealed that children in5th grade (M = 5.32, SD = 1.9), 6th grade (M = 5.68, SD = 2.3), and 7th grade (M =

536 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

5.81, SD = 2.0) generated a greater mean number of variety of causes for infant cryingcompared to younger children in 1st grade (M = 4.83, SD = 2.4), 2nd grade (M = 4.38,SD = 2.0), and 4th grade (M = 4.48, SD = 1.8).

Variety of strategies for responding to infant cryingWe also expected that the variety of different strategies children offered to help a cryinginfant would increase with age. The results indicated a significant main effect for gradelevel, F(6, 710) = 3.49, p < .01, �2

p = .03. No significant main effect for sex, F(1, 710) =5.12, p = .03, �2

p = .007 or grade level by sex interaction emerged, F(6, 710) = 1.62, p =.14, �2

p = .01. Tukey’s post hoc analyses revealed that older children in 6th grade (M =1.83, SD = 0.60) generated a greater variety of strategies compared to younger childrenin 4th grade (M = 1.47, SD = 0.60).

In summary, grade and sex differences were observed between younger children andolder children with regard to the number and variety of spontaneously generated causesand strategies for infant crying (see Figure 1). As predicted, older children spontaneouslygenerated a greater number and variety of causes and strategies compared to youngerchildren. Girls generated a higher mean number and variety of causes compared toboys, suggesting that girls have access to a greater repertoire of qualitatively differentresponses compared to boys during middle childhood.

Sex and grade level differences in causes for infant crying: Superordinateand subordinate categories

Superordinate category: Internal causesThe next set of analyses examined sex and grade differences on the superordinate cate-gory, Internal Causes of infant crying. We expected to find that children’s perceptionsof why an infant is crying changes with increasing age, and is reflected by an increase inthe number of internal causes of infant crying. Findings revealed a significant main effect

Mean s

core

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

1 2 3 4

Grade

5 6 7

Variety of causes

Number of causes

Number of strategies

Variety of strategies

Figure 1. Grade differences in the number and variety of causes and strategies for infant crying.

Children’s understanding of infant crying 537

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Grade

Mean s

core

Internal causes External causes

Figure 2. Grade differences in children’s perceptions of causes of infant crying.

for sex, F(1, 710) = 12.05, p = .001, �2p = .02, and a significant main effect for grade

level, F(6,710) = 12.45, p < .001, �2p = .10, for the superordinate category of Internal

Causes for infant’s crying (see Figure 2). No significant sex by grade level interaction wasobserved, F(6, 710) = 2.23, p = .04, �2

p = .02. Girls generated a higher mean numberof internal causes of infant crying (M = 2.61, SD = 1.7), compared to boys (M = 2.18,SD = 1.6). Follow-up Tukey’s post hoc analyses for grade revealed that older childrenin 6th grade (M = 2.99, SD = 1.70), and 7th grade (M = 3.07, SD = 1.60), generated asignificantly greater mean number of internal causes compared to younger children in1st grade (M = 1.82, SD = 1.60), 2nd grade (M = 1.75, SD = 1.4), 4th grade (M = 2.02,SD = 1.3), and 5th grade (M = 2.48, SD = 1.70).

Subordinate categories: Internal causesWe examined sex and grade level differences on the four subordinate categories ofInternal Causes: internal physical, emotional, relational goal, and desired goal. Findingsrevealed significant main effects for sex, Wilks’ Lambda F(4, 707) = 5.13, p < .001,�2

p = .03, and grade level, Wilks’ Lambda F(24, 2467.6) = 6.62, p < .001, �2p = .05. No

significant sex by grade level interaction was observed, Wilks’ Lambda F(24, 2467.6) =1.39, p = .1, �2

p = .01. Follow-up univariate ANOVAs were used to assess the effectfor each of the four subordinate categories (see Table 2). Significant sex differenceswere observed for the category of goal relational causes, with girls generating higherscores compared to boys. A Tukey’s post hoc analysis demonstrated that the numberof responses that children attributed to internal physical causes tended to increaseprogressively from 1st grade to 7th grade, with children in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7thgrades generating a higher mean number of internal physical causes compared to 1st and2nd grade children. Similarly, older children in 6th and 7th grade generated a significantlygreater number of emotional state causes for infant crying compared to younger childrenin 1st and 4th grade. Interestingly, children in 3rd grade generated significantly more

538 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

Tabl

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eson

subo

rdin

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cate

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esof

inte

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caus

esof

infa

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ying

Children’s understanding of infant crying 539

causes for infant crying that were within the category of ‘desired goals’ (e.g., ‘wants toplay’, ‘wants a toy’) compared to 4th, 5th, and 7th grade children.

Superordinate category: External causesFindings revealed a significant main effect for grade level, F(6, 710) = 4.32, p < .001,�2

p = .04 for the superordinate category of external causes for infant crying (see Figure 2).There was neither a significant main effect for sex, F(1, 210) = 0.53, p = .5, �2

p = .00,nor a grade level by sex interaction, F(6, 710) = 2.0, p = .06, �2

p = .02. Further analyseswere conducted to determine the differences across grades for external causes. Tukey’spost hoc analyses revealed that older children in 5th grade (M = 1.55, SD = 1.10), and7th grade (M = 1.41, SD = 1.10) generated a greater number of external causes for infantcrying compared to younger children in 2nd grade (M = 0.88, SD = 0.90) and 4th grade(M = 1.00, SD = 0.90).

Subordinate categories: External causesWe examined sex and grade differences on the subordinate categories of externalcauses for infant crying: external physical, external relational. The MANOVA revealed asignificant main effect for grade level, Wilks’ Lambda F(12, 1418) = 6.08, p < .001, �2

p =.05. There was no significant main effect for sex, Wilks’ Lambda F(2, 709) = 2.51, p =.08, �2

p = .01, or a significant sex by grade interaction, Wilks’ Lambda F(12, 1418) = 1.62,p = .08, �2

p = .01. Follow up univariate ANOVAs were conducted to examine specificgrade differences for the two dimensions of external causes (see Table 3). These resultsindicated significant grade level effects for children’s generation of external physical andexternal relational causes for infant crying. A Tukey’s post hoc analysis demonstrated thatchildren in 5th grade, 6th grade, and 7th grade, generated significantly more externalphysical causes for infant crying than younger children in 1st grade, 2nd grade, and4th grade. The youngest children in 1st grade, generated the highest mean number ofexternal relational causes for infant crying compared to all older children in 2nd grade,3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, and 7th grade.

Sex and grade level differences in children’s strategiesfor responding to infant crying

Category: Caregiving strategiesOur next set of analyses explored grade and sex differences with regard to the numberof caregiving and entertainment strategies that children spontaneously generated forhelping a crying infant. As with our previous hypotheses, we expected that older childrenwould generate a greater number of caregiving and entertainment strategies to help acrying infant than would younger children. The results of an analysis of variance revealedthat the number of caregiving strategies nominated by children to help a crying infantwas significantly influenced by sex, F(1, 710) = 28.62, p < .001, �2 = .04 and grade level,F(6, 710) = 13.30, p < .001, �2

p = .10. No significant grade level by sex interaction wasobserved, F(6, 710) = 1.14, p = .40, �2

p = .01. Individual comparisons using Tukey’s post

hoc analysis revealed a general increase in the number of caregiving strategies nominatedby children with increasing grade. Older children in 5th grade (M = 2.5, SD = 1.40), 6thgrade (M = 2.69, SD = 1.70), and 7th grade (M = 2.89, SD = 1.60) generated significantlymore caregiving strategies in contrast to children in 1st grade (M = 1.54, SD = 1.20) and2nd grade (M = 1.65, SD = 1.30). Girls generated a significantly greater mean number

540 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

Tabl

e3.

Chi

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n’s

scor

eson

subo

rdin

ate

cate

gori

esof

exte

rnal

caus

esof

infa

ntcr

ying

Children’s understanding of infant crying 541

of caregiving strategies to help a crying infant (M = 2.57, SD = 1.60), compared to boys(M = 1.95, SD = 1.40).

Category: Entertainment strategiesFindings revealed a significant effect for grade, F(6, 710) = 3.4, p < .01, �2

p = .03, anda significant sex by grade level interaction, F(6, 710) = 3.17, p < .01, MSe = .77, �2

p =.03. No significant effect of sex, F(1, 710) = 1.84, p = .20, �2

p = .00 was observed.Follow-up simple effects analyses revealed a significant effect of grade on the number ofentertainment strategies generated by girls, F(6, 710) = 4.49, p < .001, �2

p = .04. Thesignificant simple main effect was further analysed by pairwise comparisons using theSidak adjustment for multiple comparisons. Older girls in 6th grade (M = 1.27, SD = 1.1)generated a significantly greater mean number of entertainment strategies compared toyounger girls in 1st grade (M = 0.46, SD = 0.70), 2nd grade (M = 0.57, SD = 0.80), and4th grade (M = 0.71, SD = 0.90).

In summary, older children generated a greater number of internal and externalsuperordinate causes, internal subordinate causes and increased caregiving strategies inresponse to infant crying compared to younger children. Girls generated a significantlygreater number of relational-goal causes compared to boys. In contrast, boys in 3rd gradegenerated significantly more desired-goal causes for infant crying. As predicted, olderchildren were more likely to cite internal, emotional causes for infant crying.

Relations of empathy and perspective taking to causes and strategiesfor infant crying

Sex and grade level differences in empathic concern and perspective takingOur next objective was to determine whether self-reports of empathy varied by gradeand sex for younger (1st grade to 3rd grade) and separately, older children (4th to 7thgrades). Based on previous literature, we expected that girls would report significantlygreater empathy compared to boys. Mean scores for the six-item empathy questionnaireadministered to younger children were analysed via a 2 (sex) × 3 (grade level) ANOVA.Contrary to what we expected, no significant main effect for sex emerged, F(1, 265) =2.13, p = .15, �2

p = .00. With girls rating only slightly higher (M = 1.84, SD = 0.20) inempathy than boys (M = 1.80, SD = 0.24). No grade level, F(2, 265) = 2.19, p = .11�2

p = .02, or grade level by sex interaction effect, F(2, 265) = .50, p = .61, �2p = .00, was

observed.To examine sex and grade level differences in empathy among the older children, a 2

(sex) × 7 (grade level) MANOVA was performed, with grade and sex as the independentvariables, and the two subscales from the IRI – empathic concern and perspective taking –as the dependent variables. Findings revealed a significant main effect for sex, Wilks’Lambda F(2, 438) = 18.43, p < .001, �2

p = .08, but no significant effect of grade, Wilks’Lambda F(6, 876) = 0.17, p < .1, �2

p = .00. Follow-up univariate ANOVAs were usedto assess the effect of sex on empathic concern and perspective taking, respectively.A significant sex effect was observed for both the empathic concern subscale, F(1,445) = 38.85, p < .001, �2

p = .08 and perspective-taking subscale, F(1, 445) = 20.45,p < .001, �2

p = .04 of the IRI. Consistent with what we expected, girls scored higher inempathic concern (M = 3.65, SD = 0.78) than boys (M = 3.15, SD = 0.90) and higherin perspective taking (M = 3.15, SD = 0.80) than boys (M = 2.81, SD = 0.80). Nostatistically significant effect of grade was observed on empathic concern or perspectivetaking.

542 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

Correlations between dimensions of empathy-related responding and causes and strategiesfor infant cryingNext, we present findings from correlational analyses that examined relations ofchildren’s perspective taking and empathic concern to both number and variety of causesand strategies for infant crying. For younger children in grades 1–3, analyses revealedno significant correlations between children’s empathy and the causes of infant cryingor strategies offered to help a crying infant. For older children in the 4th to 7th grades,significant and positive associations were observed between empathy-related responding(empathic concern and perspective taking) and nearly every single dimension of olderchildren’s understanding of causes for infant crying and strategies for responding toinfant crying (see Table 4). Higher empathy was associated with greater spontaneousgeneration of responses in older children.

Table 4. Relation of empathy-related responding to causes and strategies for infant crying: Correlationsfor 4th to 7th grade children

DiscussionThe purpose of this study was to describe the development of children’s perceptions ofand comforting strategies to a pictorial representation of infant crying and to examinethe relation of these responses to dimensions of empathy-related responding. Thisinvestigation found an age-related increase in the number, variety, and quality of causesand strategies nominated by children across middle childhood to help a crying infant.Unique to this study, older children’s empathic responses were associated with thenumber and quality of children’s perceptions of, and comforting strategies for respondingto infant crying. The observed advances in older children’s understanding of facialexpressions of infant crying are important in both replicating and extending previouswork on the development of emotion understanding, empathy and subsequent prosocial(comforting), altruistic behaviours in middle childhood.

Children’s understanding of infant crying 543

Number and variety of responsesThe present investigation found that the size and diversity of children’s repertoire ofresponses was shown to increase with maturity. Younger children on average produced3.5 causes (2.9 strategies) in response to a pictorial representation of infant crying,whereas older children on average produced 4.1 causes (and 3.6 strategies) in response.Moreover, 83.5% of the younger children cited only 1–3 qualitatively different strategiesto help a crying infant, whereas 86.6% of the older children cited 2–6 qualitativelydifferent strategies. These findings closely correspond to the magnitude of the increasesin the number and diversity of children’s comforting behaviours and verbal intentionsto help a crying infant observed by Burleson (1982) and Zahn-Waxler et al. (1983).Girls generated a higher mean variety of causes compared to boys, suggesting that girlshave access to a greater repertoire of qualitatively different responses compared to boysduring middle childhood. Our findings are consistent with evidence that demonstratesan advantage of females in literacy learning as early as kindergarten that is associated withteacher-perceived prosociality and classroom behaviours (Bouchard, Cloutier, Gravel, &Sutton, 2008; Ready, LoGerfo, Burkam, & Lee, 2005).

Quality of responsesThe results also demonstrated that the quality of responses increased with age. Consistentwith Pons et al. (2004), the youngest children in our study were 5 years old and wereable to understand basic situational cues associated with emotions (e.g., external causesof emotion). Whereas, older children were more likely to cite causes that were relatedto internal, emotional aspects of infant crying. These results are consistent with previousevidence suggesting that children’s understanding of emotion moves from an externalfocus to an internal focus as they mature and develop (Fabes et al., 1991; Pons et al.,2004). Older children are more likely to acknowledge and legitimize the emotional,internal state of a distressed individual (Burleson, 1982; McCoy & Masters, 1985). Thesignificant increase in external and goal-related causes for infant crying generated bychildren in grade 3 is consistent with evidence that children around this age are able tounderstand the role of desires and beliefs and that the lack of achieving goals and desirescan cause distress (Fabes et al., 1991; Pons et al., 2004). Why there was a spike in thisdimension of causes among our 3rd grade children is unclear. In other words, we areuncertain as to why there is an increase from grade 2 to grade 3 and then a decreasein grade 4 on desired goal-related causes for infant crying. It may be that this ratheranomalous finding is representative of some developmental shift in children’s emotionalunderstanding and cognition as children are developing a nascent understanding ofabstract constructs. Other researchers have found that children at this age overestimatetheir abilities and competencies in all domains of their self-concept (Harter, 1986), thusit may be that this overestimation extends to other areas of understanding. Alternatively,a simple methodological explanation is that the 3rd grade children were performing atceiling level. It is possible that this spike in dimension of responding would disappear ifthe 3rd grade children were required to write down their responses rather than verballyrespond as with the method used with the 4th to 7th grade children.

Empathic responding to infant cryingOlder girls demonstrated higher empathy compared to boys – a finding consistent withprevious studies (e.g., Eisenberg, Spinrad, et al., 2006; Zahn-Waxler et al., 1992). Older

544 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

children’s self-reports of empathy including empathic concern and perspective takingwere positively associated with the number, variety and quality of causes for infant cryingas well as the number of caregiving strategies generated by children. These results areconsistent with evidence suggesting that children’s ability for perspective taking andunderstanding another’s emotional state is related to how a child views and potentiallyresponds to a distressed individual (Eisenberg, Fabes, Karbon, Murphy, Carlo et al.,1996; Fabes et al., 1991; Thompson & Gullone, 2008; Zahn-Waxler et al., 1983). Takentogether, the evidence suggests that 4th to 7th grade children’s generation of causes andstrategies in response to a crying infant are associated with their empathic responding.The absence of a significant relation between our measure of empathy and perceptionsand comforting strategies to infant crying among our sample of younger children maybe due to a number of factors. For instance, it may be that our measure of empathy wasnot sensitive enough to detect significant relations. Moreover, the evidence that youngchildren’s level of emotion understanding is limited to external attributions for causes ofemotions may hinder children from relating empathically to more complex, internallybased emotions associated with infant crying. Finally, it may be that there are factorsother than empathy that are important when examining perceptions and comfortingstrategies in younger children.

Strategies to help a crying infantOf particular interest was the finding that the majority of children irrespective of agecited feeding as the primary caregiving strategy in response to a crying infant. It ispossible that the measure was not specific enough to tap into children’s understandingof strategies to help a crying infant. This is unlikely however, given the considerablevariety of reasons children were able to offer with regards to the cause of infant crying.It is more likely that this observation is a true reflection of children’s understanding ofhow to help a crying baby given that feeding an infant is a strategy universally acceptedby the general population. The consistency in caregiving strategies and self -reportedmeasures of empathy suggests stability in children’s knowledge and understanding ofstrategies and behaviours to help a crying infant. Indeed, longitudinal research hasshown that prosocial behaviours observed in children aged 4–5 years predicts prosocialbehaviour in later childhood and early adulthood (Eisenberg et al., 1999, 1987).

Caveats and limitations

Several limitations merit attentionFirst, we limited our exploration of the development of children’s responses to a pictorialrepresentation of infant crying to a cross-sectional sample of children. It is possible thatlongitudinal examination of a range of emotions in a real-life observational setting wouldoffer more information. Secondly, this was not an in-depth content analysis, nor weresophisticated classificatory statistical approaches used to identify empirically derivedcategories. The category classifications were however, grounded within the emotiondevelopmental literature with acceptable inter-rater reliability scores. In an attempt tocontrol for writing ability, younger children in grades 1–3 gave verbal answers, whereasolder children gave written answers. Although this may be observed as a methodologicallimitation, it is possible that the observed age-related differences would have been greaterhad the younger children’s responses been limited by their writing ability. Finally, aconsiderable limitation of the current study was the lack of control for young children’s

Children’s understanding of infant crying 545

verbal or language ability. Individual differences in emotional understanding have beenlinked to numerous potential influences such as parent-child discourse on emotionalstates (Dunn, Brown, & Beardsall, 1991) and verbal or language ability (Cutting & Dunn,1999). Children’s general language ability, measured on standardized scales such as theBritish Picture Vocabulary Scale (Dunn, Dunn, Whetton, & Pintilie, 1982) and the Testof Early Language Development (Hresko, Reid, & Hammill, 1991) is related to children’stheory of mind, or the ability to understand a person’s actions in terms of that person’sdesires, thoughts, or beliefs (Cutting & Dunn, 1999; Milligan, Astington, & Dack, 2007).Children who are more linguistically advanced and whose mothers’ describe them inmore mentalistic terms are more likely to understand the association between false belieftests and emotion (De Rosnay, Pons, Harris, & Morrell, 2004) suggesting that children’slanguage ability may have influenced their quality and quantity of responses in the currentstudy. Sex and language skills are also important factors when examining children’semotional understanding and empathy (Eisenberg, Spinrad, et al., 2006; Eisenberg &Lennon, 1983; Pons, Lawson, Harris, & De Rosnay, 2003). Children with lower verbalcapabilities are less socially competent and more aggressive towards others (Cole, 2001;Stowe, Arnold, & Ortiz, 1999) and are perceived more negatively by adults (Bouchardet al., 2008; Wood & Valdez-Menchaca, 1996). Future studies would benefit from theinclusion of a measure of language ability. Notably, age and language ability stronglycovary in typically developing children and much of the variance in responses offered byyoung children that is explained by language ability will be shared by age (Milligan, et al.,2007). Overall, the current study offers a unique contribution towards furthering theunderstanding of how children’s responses to a pictorial representation of infant cryingdevelop across middle childhood. The dataset was unique in its diverse population, highparticipation rate, and large cross-sectional sample.

ConclusionsAn age-related increase in the number and variety of causes and strategies to help acrying infant was observed across middle childhood. Among the older children only,self-reported empathy scores were associated with the number and variety of writtenattributions for the cause of infant crying and comforting strategies. The findings supportthe conclusion for a developmental progression of understanding of facial expressionsof infant crying across middle childhood. The substantial variation in responses thatemerged among the children in our sample with respect to sex and grade points tothe value of exploring the individual and contextual processes and mechanisms thatpredispose particular children (who may themselves become caregivers) towards aself-oriented or other-oriented tendency. Although a great deal needs to be learnedabout the development of children’s comforting strategies and understanding of infantcrying during middle childhood, the current state of the research supports that thisarea may prove to be fertile in shedding light on the antecedents and correlatesof prosocial behaviours, and in turn, provide much needed direction for the designand implementation of prevention and intervention programmes aimed at promotingprosocial behaviour. Surely, there is no single route to promoting prosocial behavioursin children and adolescents. Our research suggests that considering the developmentof children’s perceptions of and strategies for comforting a crying infant can yield newinsights into the ways in which we understand and address this complex phenomenon.Future research might focus on including a larger corpus of measures of emotions andbehaviours to further examine children’s perceptions of infant crying and comforting

546 Nicole L. A. Catherine and Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

strategies via a diverse range of methodological strategies, including observation andlaboratory experiments in order to see the how the findings from the present studyextend to these other approaches.

AcknowledgementsThis research was supported by grants from the BC Medical Services Foundation (VancouverFoundation) and the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at the University of BritishColumbia to the second author. Parts of this research were presented at the 2009 Biennialmeeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Denver, Colorado. Specialappreciation is expressed to Denise Buote, Angela Jaramillo, Matt Haberlin, Molly StewartLawlor, Celina Vergel de Dios, Lynda Hutchinson, Shayna Rusticus, Mira Williams, KimThomson, and Anat Zaidman Zait for their assistance with data collection and data coding.We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments andinsights. Finally, we would like to express our deep felt gratitude to the children and theirteachers and parents for making this study possible.

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Received 4 March 2009; revised version received 25 March 2010

Children’s understanding of infant crying 551

Appendix A

Primary grade children’s self-report of sympathy/empathy

Appendix B

Intermediate grade children’s self-report of empathy: Empathic concern andperspective taking